Yakitori Hachibei Chinatown Hawaii won the prize in the Rave Reviews category at Ilima Awards 2017‼️

This prize is awarded to the restaurant that received the best reviews during the span of a year. The winner is chosen by staff from Star Advertiser, a big news company in Hawaii. Thank you so much for choosing Hachibei Hawaii!!

To delight the people of Hawaii with yakitori made with Hawaiian ingredients… This has been the original idea since the restaurant was set up with Robert.

We first made an encounter with chickens in the north. Then we saw a historical building in Chinatown, and met with chef Kaori. Again and again, these kind of miracles happened in Hawaii.
And this time, we received a prize… the proof that we truly pleased the people who live here. There is nothing that could have make us happier!

But above all, our most important encounter was with Robert. Since his student days when he was a waiter, his dream has been to one day open his own restaurant. After graduating from university, he went to New York to work and fate sent him to Japan. This is when he met with yakitori, at Hachibei Tenjin.

At that time, the first words we exchanged were:

– ”I want to make these yakitoris in Hawaii! I want to please the people in Hawaii with yakitori!
– “Oh, that’s a nice idea! Let’s do it!

It has already been 17 years since then, but that’s the story of how it all started.

We all cried as we were moved by Robert’s tears. No one thought we would cry so much. It seems he was really moved when chef Kaori’s food plate was shown at the awards.
Then, Tommy’s yakitori plate was shown, and I heard “Amazing! This is Hachibei…”. It is when I saw those two plates that I was moved to tears.

So we have come this far… This is how I pictured Hachibei Hawaii…
I want to continue cooking with an “aloha heart” using Hawaiian ingredients.

“Hawaii taught me everything”.
I love these words.

We will continue to learn. The Hawaii that we love so much will continue to teach us about many more things.

And also, I would like to lift up this trophy to Julius Ludovico, who raises miracle chickens in the north.

Thank you❗️Aloha&Mahalo❗️

Katsunori Yashima, Yakitori Hachibei Shopkeeper